In South Bend, Notre Dame will house a 21-foot long cluster of 580 computers downtown at Union Station by Coveleski Stadium. The cluster will be linked into the grid in cooperation with the St. Joseph Valley Metronet – the non-profit dark fiber network established in cooperation with the City of South Bend earlier this year.

The South Bend Tribune says the project, along with other recent local technology developments “represent(s) a continuing shift in the local economy away from traditional manufacturing toward a technology base.”

The Grid will be an incredible opportunity for our area, but I do not think it necessarily precludes manufacturing applications. Increased computing power and research capability will help serve to modernize our manufacturing base – not eliminate it.

Jeff Kantor, V.P for research and graduate studies at Notre Dame says the grid will dramatically increase the research infrastructure, but also cites some practical implications for the nuts-and-bolts engineering and manufacturing economy:

“The design of orthopedic devices, from an engineering perspective, is an example of where we can lead with simulation studies and computations work that will be supported through the collaboration of the grid.”